Gadget

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Larger
than life. Last of his kind. King of Skull Island. First unleashed
more than eight decades ago, King Kong has thundered off the big
screen and into our world with a force that echoes through our
collective consciousness still. Now the time has come to restore the
crown of the greatest movie monster myth of all, with Warner Bros.
Pictures' new action-adventure Kong: Skull Island.

A
compelling, original adventure from director Jordan
Vogt-Roberts, Kong: Skull Island tells the story of
a diverse team of scientists, soldiers and adventurers uniting to
explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific, as dangerous as
it is beautiful. Cut off from everything they know, the team ventures
into the domain of the mighty Kong, igniting the ultimate battle
between man and nature. As their mission of discovery becomes one of
survival, they must fight to escape a primal Eden in which humanity
does not belong.

“Kong
represents all the mystery and wonder that still exists in the
world,” says Kong:
Skull Island director
Jordan Vogt-Roberts. “That’s why he will never stop being
relevant.”

The
legend and iconography of Kong continue to strike consistently deep
yet wildly varying chords with generations of fans. “A lot of
things define Kong—his size, his power, his animal nature, but also
his heart and huge depth of soul,” observes producer Mary Parent.
“He keys into our natural affinity for other primates, and his
gestures and expressions are much more humanlike than even natural
primates—which is what has always set Kong apart from other
monsters. Even though he’s a terrifying predator, it’s impossible
not to root for him. In some ways, he’s been more like the classic
romantic hero than a villain.”

King
Kong was originally conjured by revolutionary special effects master
Willis H. O’Brien and sculptor Marcel Delgado to be the enigmatic
central figure and unquestionable heart of Merian C. Cooper and
Ernest B. Schoedsack’s groundbreaking 1933 classic “King Kong”—a
dazzling mash-up of Beauty and the Beast, high adventure and giant
monsters that would shock and awe millions of moviegoers across the
world. It played to sold-out crowds at the height of the Great
Depression and broke records through decades of re-releases and
television airings. It was the original effects-driven blockbuster
and monster movie milestone, and has been remade, parodied and
spun-off on every sized screen. Kong has also become embedded in pop
culture, inspiring everything from video games to hip hop lyrics to
college dissertations, and deploying armies of action figures,
models, toys and games.

Kong’s
defiant end from high atop the Empire State Building is among the
most iconic of all time. But for fans—and Tull counts himself among
them—his provocative beginning remains the Holy Grail of origin
stories. In fact, his long-held goal of a 21st century MonsterVerse
wouldn't be complete without it. The producers brought in writers Dan
Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly to craft the screenplay
from a story by John Gatins. Tull states, “One of the most
fascinating elements of the Kong lore is Skull Island—a place with
the most exotic, lethal food chain you can imagine, and Kong is the
alpha predator keeping the rest at bay. That’s the mythology we
wanted to crack open in this film. Our characters are not taking Kong
off the island. They have to survive his domain.”

For
Vogt-Roberts, “King Kong” had been the entrée to a lifelong
obsession with film. “‘King Kong’ is legitimately film history,
and when I first saw the 1933 film, it completely shattered my brain
with its endless cinematic possibilities,” he says. “It was the
first movie to transport audiences to an uncharted, untamed world.
Though it was on our own planet, we were confronted with things that
we were told couldn’t exist here.”

A
self-described “nerd,” the Detroit-born filmmaker came of age on
a steady diet of monster movies, summer blockbusters and video games.
His discovery of ‘70s cinema would be the flashing neon sign
guiding him forward into making movies of his own. Though that
generation’s bold, brash, socially conscious films had been
produced long before Vogt-Roberts was even born, they spoke directly
to his own contemporary experience and sensibility. “The ‘70s are
like a weird black mirror of our modern world,” he notes.
“Everything that was happening then—political scandals, civil
unrest, divisive wars, distrust of the government—reflects exactly
what’s happening right now. At the same time, the `70s was kind of
the last time when science and myth could co-exist. Since then, we’ve
been on a slow quest to destroy the unknown.”

“Kong:
Skull Island” marked only the second film—and by far the
biggest—that Vogt-Roberts has made, but he was undaunted. He
reflects, “What guided me through this epic journey was to create
an experience for the audience that will feel so real that it will
open up a space for myth and mystery in their lives. Even though
we’re making a completely new movie with, with a very different
narrative…this is King Kong.”

Opening
across the Philippines in 2D, 3D in select theatres, and IMAX
beginning March 9, 2017, Kong: Skull Island is
distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment
Company.